The Little Dumbbell, M76, is a faint planetary nebula in Perseus, a bipolar shell named for its likeness to the larger and brighter Dumbbell Nebula, M27.
At a glance
| type | nebula |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 4,430 light-years (1.36 kpc) |
| its light left it | 4,430 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 1.8 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Little Dumbbell (M76)
M76 is a planetary nebula in Perseus, discovered by Pierre Méchain and added to Charles Messier’s catalogue. It is among the faintest objects in that list. Its bright central bar reminded observers of the Dumbbell Nebula, so it took the name Little Dumbbell. The two halves of the bar were once thought to be separate objects and were given two numbers in the New General Catalogue, NGC 650 and NGC 651.
The bar is a ring of gas seen nearly edge-on, wrapped around the dying star. Out of its poles, two faint lobes of gas billow away, giving the nebula a butterfly shape in deep images. This bipolar form, a dense waist with lobes escaping along the axis, is common among planetary nebulae and is thought to be shaped by rotation, magnetic fields or a companion star.
What you see in the piece
In the piece it is a small glowing cloud below the plane of the disc in the direction of Perseus; from the Sun it is a point.
Questions
Why does M76 have two NGC numbers?
Its two bright halves were once thought to be separate nebulae, so the New General Catalogue lists them as NGC 650 and NGC 651.
How far away is the Little Dumbbell?
The Little Dumbbell is 4,430 light-years (1.36 kpc) from the Sun.